Aircraft store separation is a serious consideration for both weapon and aircraft designers. The weapon designer wants to avoid the large release disturbance, since it affects the weapon's accuracy; the aircraft designer wants to avoid the large release disturbance, since it is dangerous to the pilot and can result in damage to the aircraft. Various methods of improving weapon separation characteristics have been employed but none have been entirely satisfactory. The present systems are rather erratic in their separation characteristics due to variation in store configurations.
In retrospect, it is quite unlikely that a store separation problem existed when aircraft flew at 250 knots and dropped 2000 lb. bombs. Due to the inertia loads being much greater than the aerodynamic loads, the bombs were aerodynamically inert at release. However, as aircraft speed increased, the resultant aerodynamic loads increased with velocity squared and store separation became a problem. Weapon accuracy was reduced and aircraft damage sustained.
Aircraft can now carry high density, externally stored weapons supersonically. This invention would allow such weapons to be launched at supersonic speeds by minimizing the release disturbances that are encountered and thereby increasing weapon accuracy and eliminating the danger of damage to the aircraft.
Spinning masses have been employed in the prior art to give stability to rockets. Such devices, however, have not been employed to reduce the launch disturbance which acts on a bomb upon release at high speeds from an aircraft. The bomb itself has no inherent motor power. It moves only when something, a plane or gravity for example, moves it. In this sense it is a nonself-propelling unit. Because it is not a rocket, the need for stability has not been a primary concern of those working with bombs.